USD’s Chris Manresa has played well since returning from a back injury that sidelined him for seven games earlier this season. Earnie Grafton • U-T file photo

It may have been USD’s easy, 88-65 win over NAIA Arizona Christian, or maybe it was just the fact that the Toreros knew going in that their biggest game of the preseason was just four nights away.

But for whatever reason, the Toreros’ game Saturday night with San Diego State was a topic moments after USD beat the Firestorm on Tuesday.

“I haven’t talked to them about it, but they know what’s down the road on Saturday,” USD coach Bill Grier said of his 6-5 Toreros just after the victory.

Call it the Firestorm before the real storm, that being the 18th-ranked Aztecs and their accompanying sixth man, “The Show.”

For USD seniors Chris Manresa, Ken Rancifer and Cameron Miles, this is their last chance for romance against the team they love to hate and would like even more to beat in their last game against the Aztecs.

“I want one,” Rancifer said. “I want one bad. We’re cool and everything. Sure, I know them. They know me. But we know we just have to come out and play solid basketball against them, just good basketball. I haven’t beaten them since I’ve been here, so it would mean a lot to beat them.”

USD has overcome some early adversity to win three games in a row as it readies for SDSU. Manresa missed seven games with a bad back, but he has played in each of the Toreros’ three straight wins. Grier said when Manresa was out he and his staff could see that USD’s other big men were lost without him in there.

“We came in together, and he’s my brother,” Rancifer said. “It feels good to have our brother back on the court with us. It makes a huge difference because we’ve been through so much together. He brings out the best of everybody. He worked so hard in the preseason, and then to see him go down. But now that he’s back, we feed off him.”

Manresa has been nursing his back, icing it, stretching it, getting extra therapy on it, everything he can to stay upright for his last season at Alcala Park.

“It’s the same thing I went through last year, bulging discs that come and go, and it’s just something I have to deal with,” Manresa said. “But the training staff has been really great with it. I’m keeping it stretched, doing a lot of hamstring flexibility, working on getting my core stronger, yoga, just a lot of flexibility stuff.”

Manresa said the Aztecs game is “the one game on the schedule we look forward to every year.” He loves the atmosphere at Viejas Arena.

“I think it’s awesome up there,” he said. “I think it’s great to play in environments like that. That’s what college basketball is all about. I love it. It’s such a great atmosphere. Fans yelling the whole game. It creates energy for us, gets us excited.”